


Bake to the Heart

by TiBun



Category: Marvel
Genre: Baking, Clint Barton Birthday Bash Bingo 2020, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Kisses Bingo 2020, M/M, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiBun/pseuds/TiBun
Summary: No one but Nat knows just how good Clint is at baking, so everyone gets a surprise when Clint decides he wants to celebrate a special day that may have gone on forgotten.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 10
Kudos: 111
Collections: Clint Barton Birthday Bash, Kisses Bingo





	Bake to the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Bingos:  
> Clint Barton Birthday Bash Bingo: (6) Cake  
> Kisses Bingo: Nose kisses
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, I only explore the possibilities.

“Why is Clint in the kitchen?” Tony asked, rushing into the community room of the tower, his hand trailing behind him as he pointed back towards where the community kitchen was located.

“I think he said something about cupcakes.” Sam shrugged, not bothering to look up from the game of chess he was playing with Steve.

“And no one’s babysitting him?”

“He’s a big boy.” Steve said with a shrug of his own, “He can handle himself.”

“Last time he was in there cooking he set the counter on fire! I don’t want to arrange for a new counter again so soon! It’s a pain to get workers who won’t spend the whole time gawking at the fact they’re surrounded by superheroes.” Tony complained.

“That was cooking. This is baking.” Bucky said as he worked on taking his vast gun collection--or at least just part of it--apart for cleaning and maintenance. 

“There’s already a huge mess!”

“A mess is not damage.” Wanda pointed out as she and Natasha sat on the floor painting each other’s toenails red. There was also a bottle of purple polish sitting out that hinted that Clint either had, or would be getting his done as well. The archer had a fondness for having painted nails that Tony would never understand, personally.

“But maybe we should, I don’t know, do  _ something  _ to make sure he doesn’t unleash the Barton chaos?” Tony whined anxiously.

“Relax, Stark.” Natasha sighed, looking up, “Maybe pull over a butt pillow and lets see if we can get those nails of yours matching your armor. I have a metallic gold polish if you want something a little more delicate than red.” She reached over and ruffled around in a makeup bag before pulling out the gold she promised and wiggling it in the air as if it would tempt him. “Besides, Clint may be a messy baker, but he’s good at it. Just trust him.”

“I have a hard time believing that guy can bake. And you ladies do realize I’m a gent, right?”

Nat shrugged, “Clint has me paint his toes all the time. Sometimes his fingernails, too. Plus as of right now, you are the only member on the team that does not have fun toes. All the other ‘gents’ here let us paint them. Or do you want to stay the only Avenger with boring toes?” she taunted.

Tony sputtered, whipping his head around to look at Steve and Sam. Sure enough, glancing down under the table showed two pairs of bare feet with polished toes. Steve’s supporting blue with little white stars and Sam’s was red with little white--were those birds? Bruce was reading a book, unaware of the conversation around him, his feet tucked up into the plush chair with him and supporting green toes and Barnes--

Yeah right. No way Bucky ‘The Winter Soldier’ Barnes would ever support painted toes!

“You expect me to believe that Barnes has painted toes?” Tony smirked.

“Yes.” Wanda shrugged, and as she did, Bucky lifted his foot, plopping it out on the coffee table he was working at to show off his silver toes with little red stars on the big toe only.

“Oh come on, you’re like the manliest bad-boy ever! You’re an assassin!”

Bucky shrugged, “Real men aren’t afraid of a little touch of cute.”

“Not to mention he’s not the only assassin on the team.” Nat said flatly. “But it’s up to you. Cute toes, or boring toes?”

“Fine!” Tony threw his hands up in the air as he moved over to sit down with the girls, “This is me, giving in to peer pressure. Like a teenager with questionable friends…”

“Hmm, at least it’s not drugs.” Wanda hummed.

“Gold? Or red? Or something new?” Nat asked.

“Gold.” he sighed, completely forgetting about the mess in the kitchen.

* * *

Clint hummed and swayed his hips to the beat of the music JARVIS was playing in the kitchen for him as he wore a frilly purple apron and more flour than he had any right to be covered in. It looked like more flour ended up on himself and the counters than in the cake batter, which had been divided up into the individual cupcake pans, and put in the oven to bake. He was now working on making the mess bigger with powdered sugar as he mixed up his favorite icing and coloring it a light purple, because purple was the best! 

“Agent Barton, I believe it is time to check the current batch.” JARVIS helpfully informed him, temporarily turning down the music so that he’d be heard.

“Thanks, J!” Clint set the frosting aside and grabbed a fresh toothpick before opening the door of the oven, poking the toothpick into one of the little cakes. It came out clean. Perfect. He grabbed the oven mits and pulled the cakes out, setting them on the cooling rack alongside the previous batches.

He turned off the oven and glanced around at his mess. He was not going to risk raw flour getting stuck in the frosting, so he went about cleaning up the counters to refresh his work space. Once he was done, he transferred the icing into a piping bags with fancy tips.

Reaching over, he tested the temperature of the first batch of cakes and finding they had cooled enough not to melt the icing, he pulled them over and lined them up in his work space before getting back to work.

Clint wasn’t an artist by Steve’s standards, the super soldier knowing how to create greatness with pencils and paint. He wasn’t one by Tony’s, either as the billionaire created sleek robotic designs that he breathed life into. But he was one when it came to creating and decorating baked goods, though he hadn’t been able to do much baking since joining the Avengers. There wasn’t enough time between work and using his down time to be a lazy shit because work was tiring. 

But today was special. Today was the anniversary of the day Bucky had officially joined the team as a man free of SHIELD monitoring him in constant fear of what Hydra forced him to be. It was the first day the man could breathe easy without worrying about an organization breathing down his neck. The day he was officially granted the title of Avenger and allowed to join them on missions.

It was a day Clint felt deserved his extra effort to do something nice rather than just sit around watching TV and letting Nat and Wanda paint his nails, though he had done that as well. His toes were a wonderful shade of purple, topped in a holographic glitter topcoat, and glancing down at his bare feet against the tile floor made him smile.

He also thought that maybe everyone hadn’t noticed what today was. He knew Bucky wouldn’t want a big deal to be made, but even Steve hadn’t made any plans, and a nice treat to share around the team wasn’t a huge ordeal. Just something nice. 

And Bucky deserved something nice.

Clint carefully designed each cake’s top, weaving the frosting into beautiful delicate purple flowers, some having yellow centers if the type of flower called for some color variation.

When he was done, he finished cleaning his mess, and started the dishwasher before placing the cakes all onto a serving tray and picking it up to carry down the hall.

He hoped everyone would like them. Especially Bucky, seeing as they were Bucky's favorite cake flavor. But he only knew Nat would for sure enjoy them. She was the only one who has tried his baking before. The others probably assumed he was as much of a disaster as a baker as he was a cook.

Stepping into the community room, he paused just inside the door, curling his painted toes into the soft carpet as he looked around at everyone doing normal every-day things--except Tony. It was new to have him getting his toes painted.

“I made cupcakes.” he announced, watching everyone look over at his flour-coated self. He’d cleaned the kitchen, but didn’t bother with his face, hair, arms, or even the idea of removing his apron.

“You look like a disaster, Barton.” Tony snarked with his smug smirk.

“An incredibly cute disaster.” Bucky corrected, his lips curling upwards in amusement, “Did any flour make it into the cupcakes?”

“How bad’s the kitchen?” Tony asked.

Clint rolled his eyes, “Kitchen’s clean, I’m adorable, and the cakes do, in fact, have the proper amount of flour in them. He rocked back onto his heels and then back onto the balls of his feet before stepping forward and moving to set the tray down on the console table behind the couch.

“Make sure you all save some for the team members who aren’t here right now.” he added picking up two cupcakes and carrying them over to where Bucky was sitting with his guns, setting one of them down for him before he took a seat.

Bucky sat frozen as he looked down at the cupcake as Clint began to dig into his own, ignoring how he was making a mess of the careful piping he had done as he peeled off the little paper cup and bit into it.

“What the fuck, Clint.” Bucky finally said, carefully picking up the little purple cupcake.

“What? I assumed you’d at least would want to try one of the tiny little cakes your boyfriend made while slaving over a hot oven.” Clint joked, trying not to let disappointment take over.

“Clint, this is too...pretty.” Bucky said in aw as he turned the cake to look at the flower that covered the top.

“Yeah, are you sure you made these? They look professional.” Tony said, standing by the tray, toes pointed upwards with toe separators keeping his toes safer while the gold polish dried.

“They look like pieces of art. How’d you do this with the frosting?”Steve asked, picking up a cupcake.

Everyone looked blown away except Nat who had two in her hands as she walked back over to sit down and enjoy them like a normal person who knew what baked goods were for--eating.

“Jarvis could probably play the footage from the kitchen showing the process if you need proof. Clint shrugged frosting on his nose, “Come on, guys, it’s frosting. It’s made to be eaten, and I’m kind of hoping you guys don’t hate it so please put me out of my misery.”

Bucky smiled and leaned over, licking the frosting off Clint’s nose before kissing it, “I’ll love to try your baking, Doll.” he whispered, “But first this needs to go up on my food blog.”

He set the little cake down and pulled out his phone to take a picture.

“You have a food blog, Barnes?” Tony asked.

“I like to appreciate good food. I spent seventy years eating protein bars on missions and being too frozen to even think of food off missions.” Bucky shrugged, shifting things around to try and get the most pleasing picture of the cupcake possible.

“I guess that’s true, but if you people keep throwing surprises at me, I might just break.” Tony said, biting into a cupcake, “Oh wow, this is amazing…”

“I told you you had nothing to worry about.” Nat smirked. “Clint’s a master baker. I've been trying to convince him to open a bakery when he retires from avenging.”

“I wouldn’t mind dating a baker.” Bucky said, saving his favorite cupcake picture to his blog with a little description about his boyfriend’s hidden talent.

“I don’t plan to retire anytime soon…”

“Then I wouldn’t mind being married to a baker, either.” Bucky smirked, causing Clint to flush red, his mouth hanging open, speechless.

“Buck, are you..?” Steve started.

“I’m serious about taking this relationship serious. We’re only six months into it, I’m not going to propose this early.”

Cint recovered, “You assume you’ll be the one to ask when the time comes.”

“Keep baking your way into my heart and it will definitely be me who pops the question.” Bucky winked back.

“Not if I propose to you  _ by  _ baking!” Clint smirked.

“I guess we’ll just have to see who wins this one.” Bucky smiled back before taking a bite out of his cupcake and moaning at the taste.

* * *

-End-

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
